We keep hearing how big and powerful they are… why dont they just make a huge red army and start taking over africa? i mean whos gonna stop them? America wont… nato is a joke… why do they wait? Or do they really have a bad millitary, and seeing how our navy seals pwned bin laden they are afraid such things would happen 2 them? which it would. Also whos gonna stop them from building a true “navy” us? They are already mad that we have “dishonored” our debt… they dont give a flying fuck what we say or do. So my question is whats stoping them? There economy is about to over take ours, but could our millitary still mess them up? It just leaves me with an odd feeling, either there top millitary brass is afraid 2 fuck with us in a striaght up conflift and not proxy wars, or they know they would get owned. which i think they would, but why should they care? i mean russia didnt.
Why the hell would China want to take over Africa? Look at a map.
Assuming you meant Asia, the question becomes “Why would they want to?” What you’re talking about is very expensive and it might hurt China’s economy. They are also near a bunch of countries that wouldn’t be that easy to take over, starting with India and Pakistan. I’ve heard it said that China’s military can’t really project force outside its borders in any case.
I don’t know where you got that nonsense about being upset about U.S. debts. China has been buying U.S. debt, which means the opposite of what you’re saying. And I think your notion about honor might be based on a stereotype of the Japanese.
China has not given a “flyng fuck” about any land outside of China (“outside” being defined by them) since the 1400s. Why should they start acting like Western Imperialistic colonizers all of a sudden now?
So much ignorance, so little time. First off, China doesn’t invade Africa because they don’t need to invade Africa (also, ‘Africa’ isn’t a country…it’s a continent, just in case there is some confusion there). Why should they? They are making inroads into Africa by simply investing capital into the region. Secondly, in case you didn’t know, China isn’t actually right next to Africa. Supporting a large invasion force (and you are talking about taking over an entire continent here, unless you meant some specific country in Africa) is something that even the US, with all our logistics ability couldn’t do. China certainly couldn’t. They have no ability to support more than (maybe) a few thousand troops that far from home. Even that would be a stretch. Third, I don’t know where you got the idea that the US would stand meekly by if China tried to invade Africa, but it’s total bullshit…there is no way we’d just let China march a large army into Africa (assuming they could, which they can’t…see point two…or would want too, see point one). And it would be laughably easy for the US to stop China from such an invasion…all we’d have to do is park a carrier task force and some submarines in the Indian Ocean…problem solved and China screwed. Forth, I’m not sure where you got the idea that NATO (it’s all caps btw…it’s both a acronym AND a formal name) is a joke (they aren’t), but assuming NATO would even get involved in something happening in Africa (I’m unsure if the organization would, though I’m sure many of the member states would), they are a lot closer to Africa than China is…so, even if you think they suck (or something) they are going to have an easier time projecting force when it’s right next door than China is when trying to project it half way around the world.
There are other things, but I think that covers the high points.
-XT
China is expanding into Africa and has been for several years.
But why invade? Military occupation is the most expensive way of gaining influence and the one most likely to encounter resistance. China’s better off doing what it’s been doing - quietly increasing its economic and political presence in Africa.
And NATO is not a joke. The combined forces of NATO would very easily defeat China: for now.
Right. That’s the main reason China wouldn’t invade Africa, or it’s neighbors in Asia for that matter (unless things go kerflooey in North Korea, perhaps), even if it could: it’s bad for business. They’re trading with these countries and making money of them, so why would they invade and destroy their infrastructure and spend money holding them?
Well, this part is wrong. Ask the Tibetans. And China has certainly shown quite a bit of interest in Africa, which, last time I checked is not now or ever was a part of China. China is certainly focusing more and more externally, though…they aren’t the insular nation they were in the 1400’s.
That said, it’s ludicrous that they would try and invade ‘Africa’. They are expanding externally, but they are doing it economically, not militarily.
-XT
I believe the “outside being defined by them” caveat was to address the Tibet situation. China believes that Tibet is part of China.
Exactly. And Formosa, and the Spratley Islands (if they decide to go for the oil reserves).
This is a very common view for some reason, but China’s greatest territorial expansion actually occurred under the Manchu Qing dynasty in the 17th and 18th centuries, as they almost trebled the size of the China. Qing China reached its greatest extent at some 13 million sq. miles of territory as compared to modern China’s ~9.6 million. The last foreign campaign ( punitive, rather than conquest oriented ) in the imperial period was against the Gurkha state of Nepal in 1790-1792. Not the best maps, but this first shows the explosive growth and the second shows the modern state relative to the imperial high point.
Which is beside the point relative to the rather silly OP of course.
This isn’t the age of imperialism anymore. Almost no country, no matter how big and powerful, can just take over a smaller one. The world is better off nowadays when countries expand influence but not land
Yep. It’s simply not done. Certainly not during the high season!
Not profitably at any rate, and that removes what’s probably the biggest motive for wars of conquest. Look at America and Iraq, a war we were told would pay for itself - didn’t work out that way. Old-style military imperialism has largely gone away because in the modern period it costs a nation more than it gains them.
China could I’m sure restructure its military for conquest, but even if America and NATO did nothing wars of conquest would probably be a net loss for them just as it has been for us in Iraq.
Actually China has sold off almost it’s entire short-term US debt securities (T-Bills) and is now working on reducing its long-term US debt securities.
They don’t seem to be working very hard.
You’re barely coherent-are you drunk or high or something?
But at any rate NATO is not a joke and the US can simply bomb the shit out of China without consideration for casualties if it wants. And in the first place China does not have force projection capabilities?
:rolleyes: Except for the little detail that they have nuclear weapons and can kill millions of Americans if we decide to do something like that.
And we have more nukes. Hence why China will not invade any other country in the first place.
Didn’t we have more nukes than the Soviets when they invaded Afghanistan? Certainly we had more than they did when they put down the revolts in Hungary, right? I don’t think having more or less nukes precludes invasions…nor do I think that nuclear weapons are going to be the main factor in China invading or not invading Africa…
-XT